SINGAPORE, July 14 — Malaysian billionaire hotel tycoon Ong Beng Seng has been arrested in relation to anti-corruption investigations involving Transport Minister S Iswaran.

Mr Ong, who has long been based in Singapore, has gained a high profile for bringing the F1 Grand Prix to Singapore, but the 77-year-old and his wife also have stakes in a range of businesses from hotels to luxury fashion.

On Friday (July 14), Mr Ong’s company, Hotel Properties Limited (HPL), announced that he is assisting the Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau (CPIB) with its probe into a case linked to Mr Iswaran.

No charges have been filed against Mr Ong, who is a permanent resident here. He has been given a notice of arrest and has posted bail of S$100,000, the company said.

Mr Ong will be travelling abroad from Friday and would surrender his passport to the authorities upon his return, HPL added. It did not specify the date of his expected return.

This is not Mr Ong's first brush with political controversy. His name cropped up in the 1990s in relation to discounts given to the late Mr Lee Kuan Yew when he was Senior Minister and some members of his family for apartment units at Nassim Jade and Scotts 28, both condominiums that he developed.

TODAY takes a closer look at the billionaire dubbed Singapore's "F1 supremo".

Who is Ong Beng Seng?

Born in Malaysia, Mr Ong moved to Singapore with his family when he was a child. The alumnus of Anglo-Chinese School worked as an insurance broker before marrying hotelier Christina Fu in 1972. He joined Kuo International, an oil trading company founded by his father-in-law Peter Fu, several years later.

Mr Ong co-founded HPL in 1980. The company, publicly listed two years later, has a portfolio of 39 hotels and resorts in 15 countries including Singapore, Indonesia, Italy, the Maldives, South Africa, Thailand and Britain.

These hotels include Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts and Marriott International. HPL also runs Hard Rock Cafe outlets in Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand.

In May last year, HPL led a consortium with Cuscaden Peak, which included units from state investment firm Temasek Holdings, to buy the real estate assets of media company Singapore Press Holdings.

Besides property, the company also dabbles in the entertainment and lifestyle industries. HPL affiliate, concert promoter Lushington Entertainments, has organised performances in Singapore by high-profile international artistes such as the late Michael Jackson and Green Day.

Lushington Entertainments formed a joint venture with American company Live Nation Entertainment in 2013 to promote concerts in Hong Kong and Singapore.

Mr Ong's wife, Christina Ong, is also a well-known businesswoman. She runs Como Hotels and Resorts, luxury fashion retailer Club 21 and London-listed handbag maker Mulberry.

According to Forbes, Mr Ong and his wife had a combined net worth of US$1.75 billion (S$2.31 billion) last year.

Dubbed by the media as a "power couple”, they are one of the wealthiest families in Singapore and live along Nassim Road, one of the country's most upscale addresses. They have two children.

The F1 Connection with Iswaran

Mr Ong is credited with bringing the F1 Grand Prix to Singapore. He is the chairman of race promoter Singapore Grand Prix (GP) and owns the rights to the race here.

A news article by Reuters from March 2007 said that he had met with the former chief executive of the Formula One Group Bernie Ecclestone that year to negotiate the launch of the event in Singapore.

The article noted that Mr Ong had had business ties with Mr Iswaran since when the latter was a managing director at Temasek from 2003 to 2006.

Also, as the Minister of State for Trade and Industry in 2007, Mr Iswaran worked closely with Mr Ong to launch the F1 Grand Prix in Singapore.

At the time, Mr Iswaran had told Parliament that F1 racing would create "attention and buzz” for Singapore.

During a speech in 2017 to announce the extension of the F1 Grand Prix in Singapore from 2018 to 2021, Mr Iswaran, who was by then Trade and Industry Minister, acknowledged the role played by Mr Ong in bringing the race to Singapore.

"Over the past decade, we have developed a strong partnership with Mr Ong Beng Seng and his team at Singapore GP, as well as Mr Bernie Ecclestone and Formula 1, to continually enhance the Singapore race and sustain its tourism appeal and economic value," said Mr Iswaran.

Mr Ong was also instrumental in bringing back the F1 Grand Prix to Singapore last year, following a two-year hiatus due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Mr Iswaran, who by then had become Transport Minister, also continued to oversee the talks with F1 and Singapore GP in 2021 due to his familiarity with the parties and issues involved.

The Ministry of Trade and Industry and Singapore Tourism Board fund 60 per cent of the race each year, with Singapore GP funding the remaining 40 per cent.

Past controversies

Mr Ong had previously been in the news for providing "unsolicited” discounts of between 5 per cent and 12 per cent on new condominium apartments in Nassim Jade and Scotts 28 purchased by then-Senior Minister Lee Kuan Yew and his son Lee Hsien Loong, who was Deputy Prime Minister at that time and is now Prime Minister.

In 1996, the Singapore Exchange reprimanded Mr Ong's company for not disclosing discount details given to Dr Lee Suan Yew, a board director who was the brother of Mr Lee Kuan Yew, and to another director's wife.

The stock exchange said that while HPL did not break any laws, it was not forthcoming in responding to its requests for information.

The matter was also addressed in Parliament, with then-Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong finding that there had been "no impropriety” involved in the purchases.

Nevertheless, Mr Goh mandated that henceforth all ministers buying properties should clear their purchases with the prime minister first. They should declare their purchase amounts and any discounts that they know they are receiving.

More recently, in 2016, Mr Ong and his wife were caught up in a high-profile legal battle with Ms Ong’s siblings over hundreds of millions of dollars in assets.

Ms Ong’s siblings, Mr Peter Fu Chong Cheng and Ms Juanita Fu, had wanted Mr Ong and his wife to honour an alleged share swap agreement from May 2014, which would have seen the Ongs exit Kuo International and the Fu's exit HPL.

In September 2018, Middle Eastern news outlet Al Jazeera alleged that Mr Ong had signed a deal for two islands in the Maldives without public tender after offering the island nation's president luxury hotel rooms. Mr Ong did not respond to requests for comment from the news outlet. — TODAY